Todos los capítulos de Crown of Silver and Ashes: Capítulo 21 - Capítulo 23

​The tree canopy in the Whispering Woods grew thick enough to choke out the midday sun, turning the forest floor into a maze of grey light and deep, cold shadows. The air smelled of wet pine, damp soil, and the sharp, static tang of unstable wild magic.​We moved as a five-person unit through the brush, ignoring the beaten path that the other student squads had taken toward the eastern clearings. Kael took the point, his massive frame parting the dense ferns with minimal disturbance, while Adrian drifted silently at our rear, his dark coat swallowing the ambient light. Silas kept pace near my left shoulder, his eyes darting continuously across the tree line to monitor the fluctuating magical static on his bronze compass, and Lucien walked to my right, his blue eyes sharp and analytical as he scanned the terrain.​"The magic density out here is shifting," Silas muttered, tapping the glass face of his compass. The needle was spinning erratically, completely ignoring true north. "We’ve c

​The fallout from the North Wing incident did not arrive with a public trial, nor did it manifest in the form of emergency tribunal hearings or flashing council warnings. It arrived instead as a suffocating, unnatural quiet that settled over Astraea Royal Academy like an incoming winter fog.​For forty-eight hours following the shattering of Princess Vespera’s glacier-stone desk, the campus operated with a tense, brittle precision. The student factions avoided the central courtyards. The northern loyalists pulled back their patrols, retreating into the upper dormitories with the defensive paranoia of soldiers bracing for an artillery strike. Even the administrative enforcers, usually quick to cite students for minor perimeter infractions, suddenly developed a convenient habit of looking the other way whenever my four-man custody detail and I crossed the quadrangles.​They were terrified.​Vespera had gone to ground. Her private study remained locked, her schedules canceled under the g